News & Stories

Vittore Carpaccio’s Saint Ursula Cycle continues its remarkable transformation on-site in Venice’s Gallerie dell’Accademia thanks to the collaborative efforts of conservators, scientists, and scholars. Vibrant colors and previously imperceptible details have re-emerged from beneath a darkened varnish and heavy overpainting from previous restoration attempts.

Science and technology have played a central role in the success of the campaign, enabling conservators and project directors to make well-informed decisions at every stage of the process and solve formerly unanswered questions about Carpaccio’s working methods. Under the guidance of Italy’s top restoration chemists, conservators have created specialized gel emulsions that allow them to effectively clean the surface of each painting in a minimally invasive way, ensuring protection of the fragile original layer.

Save Venice’s recently acquired reflectography camera system (OSIRIS) has also allowed specialized imaging technicians to scan beneath the painted surface providing valuable insights through revealing Carpaccio’s underdrawings and compositional changes.

The conservation of four canvases (Arrival of the Ambassadors, Return of the Ambassadors, Departure of the Ambassadors, and The Martyrdom and Funeral of Saint Ursula) is now nearly complete, and remains underway on the remaining three canvases (Meeting of Ursula and the Prince, Meeting of the Pilgrims with the Pope, and The Dream of Saint Ursula). Once all of the paintings are nearly completed, conservators will make any final adjustments and apply the final protective varnish to each canvas. The campaign to restore the Saint Ursula Cycle is expected to be completed in early 2019.